Google Review Widget: How to Display Google Reviews on Your Website
A Google review widget embeds your Google reviews directly on your website. Here's how they work, which tools to use, and what the SEO angle actually is.
If someone lands on your website and wants to know whether you are trustworthy, they are going to look for reviews. If they do not find them, they go to Google. And when they go to Google, they might not come back.
A Google review widget keeps that social proof on your site, where you have context and control over what surrounds it.
What a Google review widget is
A Google review widget is an embedded display of your Google reviews, pulled from your Google Business Profile and shown on your own website. Visitors see your star rating, review count, and individual reviews without leaving your site.
The widget updates automatically as new reviews come in, so it stays current without any manual work.
Why it matters
Reviews on your own site do two things. First, they give visitors confidence before they contact you. A page that shows 47 reviews at 4.8 stars answers the "can I trust this business?" question immediately. Second, they reduce the number of visitors who click away to Google to check, which means fewer opportunities for a competitor to intercept them.
Three ways to display Google reviews
1. Google Places API
The official method. You use Google's API to pull review data and display it however you want. The upside: full design control. The downside: you need a developer, an API key, and ongoing maintenance if Google changes their API. For most service businesses, this is more work than it is worth.
2. Third-party widget tools
This is what most businesses use. Tools like Elfsight, EmbedSocial, ReviewsOnMyWebsite, and Trustmary connect to your Google Business Profile through the Places API on your behalf. You enter your business name or Google Place ID, authenticate, and get an embed code to paste into your site. No code required. Most cost $5-20 per month.
The process is typically:
- Sign up for the tool
- Search for your business or enter your Place ID
- Authenticate access to your GBP
- Customize the display (layout, color, number of reviews shown)
- Copy the embed code and paste it into your site's HTML or CMS
Setup takes about 20 minutes.
3. Manual embedding (screenshots or static text)
Some businesses screenshot their reviews and embed the images. It looks legitimate at a glance, but it does not update, cannot be verified by visitors, and provides none of the SEO benefits. Not recommended.
What Google's Terms of Service require
Any widget that pulls from Google's API must display reviews honestly. You cannot show only your 5-star reviews and hide the 3-star ones. Google requires that displayed reviews reflect an accurate picture of what customers have said.
This is actually good for you. A mix of ratings looks more credible than a wall of perfect reviews. Customers are sophisticated enough to know that a business with 200 reviews at exactly 5.0 stars looks suspicious.
Where to place the widget
- Homepage: Above the fold or in a dedicated testimonials section. This is where it has the most impact for first-time visitors.
- Service pages: Reinforce trust at the moment someone is evaluating whether to hire you.
- Landing pages: Particularly important if you are running paid ads. Reviews on a landing page consistently improve conversion rates.
The SEO angle: schema markup vs. just embedding
Embedding a widget is not the same as implementing review schema markup on your website. Schema markup is structured data you add to your site's HTML that tells Google your site has ratings information. When done correctly, it can produce star ratings in your organic search results, which improves click-through rates.
Some third-party widgets automatically add schema markup when they render. Others just load an iframe with no schema at all. Before you pick a tool, check whether it generates valid Review or AggregateRating schema, or whether you need to add that separately.
The widget handles social proof on your site. Schema markup handles how you appear in search results. Ideally, you have both.
What actually drives review performance
The widget displays whatever reviews you have. It does not generate them. If you have 12 reviews and your main competitor has 180, the widget is not going to close that gap.
The upstream work is getting a consistent flow of new reviews from real customers. See our guides on how to get more Google reviews and creating a shareable Google review link for the mechanics of that. Your GBP optimization affects how many people see your listing in the first place.
The widget is the last step in a system. Get the reviews first.
If you want a full picture of where your local SEO stands, start with a free audit or learn more about our local SEO services.
Charles Lau
Founder, Formula Won Labs
Charles Lau is the founder of Formula Won Labs, an AI visibility infrastructure company that helps local businesses rank on Google Maps and get recommended by AI platforms. He works with home service companies, med spas, dental practices, and other local businesses across the US.